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British intelligence MI6 paid large sums of money to an al-Qaeda cell in Libya in a foiled attempt to assassinate Colonel Gadaffi in 1996 and thwarted early attempts to bring Osama bin Laden to justice. The allegations had emerged by renegade MI5 officer David Shayler and now by French intelligence experts. The first Interpol arrest warrant for bin Laden was issued by Libya in March 1998. British and US intelligence agencies buried the fact that the arrest warrant had come from Libya and played down the threat. Five months after the warrant was issued, al-Qaeda killed more than 200 people in the truck bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The Libyan al-Qaeda cell included Anas al-Liby, who remains on the US government's most wanted list with a reward of $25 million for his capture. He is wanted for his involvement in the African embassy bombings. Al-Liby was with bin Laden in Sudan before the al-Qaeda leader returned to Afghanistan in 1996. Astonishingly, despite suspicions that he was a high-level al-Qaeda operative, al-Liby was given political asylum in Britain and lived in Manchester until May of 2000 when he eluded a police raid on his house and fled abroad. The raid discovered a 180-page al-Qaeda 'manual for jihad' containing instructions for terrorist attacks. David Shayler was sentenced to prison for disclosing documents obtained during his time as an MI5 officer. He was not allowed to argue that he made the revelations in the public interest.

Osama bin Laden was once praised by U.S. officials. Bin Laden received U.S. support to fight Soviet troops in Afghanistan as he was shaping his al-Qaida terrorist network. French intelligence warned the CIA about getting involved with Muslim extremist. ``This business of 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend' can be very dangerous.'' During the 1980s, the United States supported several rebel groups eager to fight the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. Americans provided funds and arms, including Stinger surface-to-air missiles. Aid was channeled through Pakistan and given to groups selected by Pakistanis. Bin Laden was just emerging as a leader, but he was already an Islamic idealist, clearly with no love for the West. He was heavily funded by Saudi interests and received American logistical and political support. President Reagan once praised the Afghans and Arab guerrillas who helped them as ``freedom fighters.'' History could have turned out better if Americans had instead helped the more moderate Afghans. Because of Pakistan's opposition, Americans gave almost no help to Ahmed Shah Massood, the northern alliance's military leader, who held out for years against the Taliban in northern Afghanistan. Massood's more secular politics might have prevented the rise of extremists. Some CIA officials shared these misgivings at the time but were bound by presidential policies. The United States went wrong by allying itself too closely to Pakistan because Pakistan is playing a double - maybe a triple - game. Pakistan is allied with the United States, but they also recognized the Taliban, and they are close to China.

President Bush's National Security Council met formally nearly 100 times in the months prior to the Sept. 11 attacks yet terrorism was the topic during only two of those sessions, officials say. Critics said the low number of terrorism meetings by the most senior members of the Security Council indicated the administration's priorities were elsewhere. Clinton officials said their council principals met every two to three weeks to discuss terrorist threats after mid-1998. Those meetings increased during times of heightened terrorist concerns, such as immediately prior to the millennium celebrations, when the principals met nearly every day to discuss threat levels.

Two U.S. F-16 pilots charged with manslaughter in the April 2002 "friendly fire" bombing of Canadian troops in Afghanistan that killed four soldiers routinely took amphetamines that may have impaired their judgment. The Illinois Air National Guard pilots face a possible court-martial for dropping a laser-guided bomb near Kandahar on April 17 because they thought they were being fired on from the ground. An Air Force investigation determined the pilots "demonstrated poor airmanship" and ignored standard procedure by not making sure there were no allied troops in the area. Lawyers for the two men will argue that the accident could have been averted if the pilots had been told about ground exercises in which the Canadian soldiers were taking part. They also say the Air Force forced the pilots to use the stimulant "go pills" because they kept the pilots on an erratic schedule, flying missions some days and some nights, and did not tell them about a warning from the drug manufacturer for Dexedrine. The drug manufacturer specifically counsels doctors to tell patients they should not operate heavy machinery or engage in potentially hazardous activities while using this drug. No pilot was ever told that. "They overtasked the pilots in theater. The one time he tried not to use the pill, he nearly had a collision with a tanker," the lawyer who is representing the pilot said.

Federal authorities have issued a secret alert to state and local law-enforcement agencies warning them of "the possibility of a terrorist attack in the United States around the Fourth of July holiday." The decision not to issue a public alert was made after a series of meetings among national security and counterterrorism officials over the last several weeks. In fact, the government has issued only one public terrorist advisory so far in 2002. That alert, on April 19, warned that terrorists were considering attacks against banks in the Northeast, although bureau officials said they knew of no specific targets. Eighteen other past terrorist advisories have been issued secretly to state and local police agencies, so far in 2002, but some of those advisories got leaked to the public.

A leading Spanish newspaper reported that Mohamed Atta, suspected mastermind of the September 11 attacks, held a "summit" with other alleged conspirators in Spain to plan the suicide flights. It said Atta arrived in Madrid July 8, 2001 on a flight from Miami. He drove a rented car to Tarragona on July 9, the same day that Ramzi Binalshibh, a Yemeni national who El Pais described as the "coordinator" of the September 11 attacks, took a flight from Hamburg to Tarragona. Binalshibh arrived at a hotel in Tarragona, in northeastern Spain, accompanied by another man whose description fitted that of Said Bahaji. Police believed Binalshibh held a meeting on July 10 with Atta, whose hotel was only 15 minutes away by car. Binalshibh's companion, believed to be Bahaji and the suspected second pilot, Shehhi, also participated in the "terrorist summit." This man was accompanied by two others; leading investigators to believe that as many as six conspirators may have attended the Tarragona meeting. The report quoted no eyewitness or documentary evidence of the meeting and gave no details of what might have been discussed.

Large air tankers owned and operated by private companies and based at Forest Service airfields, "are vulnerable to theft and could be attractive to terrorists wishing to disperse biological or chemical weapons," concluded a March report by the inspector general of the Agriculture Department, the Forest Service's parent agency.
http://www.afia.com/ Aerial Firefighting Industry Association
http://www.agaviation.org/ National Agricultural Aviation Association
http://www.fs.fed.us/ U.S. Forest Service

A top Pakistani Islamic cleric warned of "riots and civil disobedience" if President Gen. Pervez Musharraf does not halt the search for al-Qaida fugitives in the fiercely independent tribal regions of Pakistan. "I warn Musharraf to refrain from expanding operations in tribal areas where tribesmen are extremely upset due to the raids conducted on their houses," Maulana Fazle ur-Rehman, chief of the fundamentalist Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam said. Pakistan authorities have also detained some members of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. Police have speculated the group may now be working with al-Qaida to take revenge on Westerners and the Pakistani government for the overthrow of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Police helicopters hovered near the World Trade Center towers to check its condition. "About 15 floors down from the top, it looks like it's glowing red," the pilot of one helicopter, Aviation 14, radioed at 10:07 a.m. eastern time. "It's inevitable." Seconds later, another pilot reported: "I don't think this has too much longer to go. I would evacuate all people within the area of that second building." Those clear warnings were transmitted 21 minutes before the building fell, and officials say they were relayed to police officers, most of whom managed to escape. Yet, most firefighters never heard those warnings, or earlier orders to get out. Their radio system failed frequently that morning. Even if the radio network had been reliable, it was not linked to the police system. And the police and fire commanders guiding the rescue efforts did not talk to one another during the crisis. Cut off from critical information, at least 121 firefighters, most in striking distance of safety, died when the north tower fell.

Communities across America have been quietly staging a revolt against the USA Patriot Act, saying it gives law enforcement too much power and threatens individual rights. The Massachusetts cities of Cambridge, Northampton and Amherst and the township of Leverett, as well as the town of Carrboro, N.C., all passed resolutions that call the USA Patriot Act a threat to the residents of their communities. The five municipalities join Berkeley, Calif., and Ann Arbor, Mich., in taking a strong stance challenging the way the Bush administration wants to pursue its war on terror within the borders of the United States. Even before USA Patriot was passed, the police in Portland, Ore. broke ranks with the Justice Department's war on terror. The city council of Boulder, Colo., is considering a resolution similar to the ones passed in the seven other cities. Denver has also passed a resolution that, while not going as far as the others go, still expresses concerns about the USA Patriot Act. The House Judicial Committee has sent a request to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft asking him and FBI Director Robert Mueller to respond no later than July 9, 2002 to 12 pages of questions (50 in all) about how the act is being implemented and how effective it has been.
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/usapatriot_oakland021217.html
http://www.rense.com/general32/ssoot.htm

A second nuclear fuel rod used at the University of Kinshasa research reactor in the Democratic Republic of Congo is missing and the possibility that it is in the hands of terrorists has not been ruled out. Although the whereabouts of that fuel element are not known, one element [What about more than one?] would be of essentially no use in constructing a nuclear device or nuclear explosive device. And it would be a poor choice for constructing a radiological or so-called dirty bomb. The rod was made by the US firm General Atomics ranging between 19.7% and 19.9% of fissionable Uranium. The benchmark for highly enriched Uranium is 20%.

A gunman - a limousine driver- carrying a .45-caliber semiautomatic Glock pistol, a 9-mm handgun and a 6-inch knife opened fire July 4, 2002 at Israel's El Al airlines ticket counter at Los Angeles International Airport, killing two people and wounding seven others before an airline security guard shot him dead. He had extra ammunition and magazines ready to use. The FBI said there was no immediate indication the shootings were connected to terrorism, and that the gunman acted alone. Israel's Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said he was convinced the shooting attack was a terrorist attack. A senior Bush administration official said there was no immediate indication the shooting was tied to terrorism. Two other suspected accomplices in the attack were being questioned. The FBI said it was not looking for any other suspects. The FBI has a preliminary identification of the gunman, but would not release it. It appeared that the gunman was an Arab male [took awhile for them to admit he was Egyptian] but American authorities refused to quickly mention this to the public and gave the public little immediate detail. Sources outside of America say the gunman was Hashem Mohamed Hadayat, 41, and that during his ten years in the United States he was a secret operative of the Egyptian Jihad, the same Jihad cell that did the first attack on the New York World Trade Center in 1993.
http://www.rense.com/general26/quad.htm

Airline pilots unions are warning members that terrorists might watch their movements or try to steal their uniforms and identification. Some flight crews believed they were being watched by people of Middle Eastern descent. In addition, some pilots have already reported that their hotel rooms were broken into and uniforms and IDs stolen. Issuing tamperproof ID cards with biometric identifiers for airline and airport employees has been recommended.

The United States is imposing economic sanctions on Chinese companies for the sales of advanced conventional arms and chemical/biological-weapons components to Iran. It is the fourth time since September 2001 that the Bush administration has singled out Beijing's state-run companies for violating U.S. laws aimed at curbing transfers of weapons and arms-related goods to rogue states. A China diplomat said "The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction is not in China's interest. We oppose proliferation of weapons of mass destruction."

The federal court has ruled in favor of Judicial Watch against Vice President Cheney and his Energy Task Force. The Court firmly rejected as "mischief" Bush Administration arguments that inquiry into the operations of Task Force would necessarily impinge on the President's constitutional powers. The Court said the Bush Administration's "stunning" arguments "fly in the face of precedent" and are a "problematic and unprecedented assertion...of Executive Power." The Court turned back the Bush Administration's lawless attempt to prevent the American people from gaining access to information about the operations of its government, stated Judicial Watch Chairman.
http://www.dcd.uscourts.gov/01-1530.pdf
http://www.google.com/search?q=Cheney+lawsuit

Is Vice Prestdent Dick Cheney above the law?

The controversial Bush administration idea, Operations TIPS (Terrorism Information and Prevention System), to get millions of Americans to snoop on one another met formidable opposition when the top House Republican proposed legislation banning such programs. Members of civil liberties and privacy groups have joined conservative groups in their condemnation of the proposed program, dubbing it "Operation Snoops." The proposed legislation would also ban the creation of national identity cards, an idea President Bush indicated he wanted to work toward. The protections of the Fourth Amendment are clear. The right to protection from unlawful searches is an indivisible American value. Two hundred years of court decisions have stood in defense of this fundamental right. The state's interest in crime-fighting should never vitiate the citizens' Bill of Rights. Operation TIPS is now prohibited by law.
http://www.google.com/search?q=Operation-TIPS

Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge (R-PA) and some lawmakers said the government should consider law to give the U.S. military a bigger law enforcement role in the event of a terrorist attack. ``I think it is time to revisit it,'' Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) said. They support revisions to the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which currently restricts using the military as a civilian police force. Congress revised the Posse Comitatus Act in 1981 - during President Ronald Reagan's (R-CA) administration costly and failing drug war on ourselves - to allow the military to help the Coast Guard in drug interdiction efforts.
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Posse+Comitatus+Act%22

The murders of military wives allegedly by their husbands who are Special Operations soldiers based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina have led commanders to take a new look at whether combat deployments may be causing undue stress. The Fort Bragg garrison commander is reviewing counseling and stress-management programs available at the base. A spokesman said the Army wants to see if there is something it could do better. But one military official who had previously served at Fort Bragg pointed out that Special Operations soldiers might be reluctant to seek help. Senior Army medical officials said the investigators will look at a wide range of issues from deployment stress to medical matters and any potential gap in military community support for troops and their families. The investigation will include whether the killings might be related to the widely used anti-malaria drug "Lariam" mefloquine, which can prompt rare side effects such as rage and suicidal tendencies. But Army officials said there was little likelihood that it would be a common thread.

Saad bin Laden, Osama bin Laden's eldest son, has been in charge of the al-Qaeda terror network al-Qaeda's pullout from its main hideouts in Afghanistan. This disclosure "substantiates the theory that bin Laden was killed or seriously wounded" in the US-led military campaign. Bin Laden's second son, 20-year-old Mohammad, had previously been expected to succeed Osama in case of his death or incapacitation and Saad was "unknown" outside al-Qaeda. Osama bin Laden has some 20 sons from various wives.

According to the London-based Ash Sharq al-Awsat newspaper, Osama bin Laden's al Qaida network will carry out a series of operations in August, 2002 and the suspected terrorist mastermind will appear in a taped recording soon after that.
http://www.asharqalawsat.com/

India's defense minister claimed (July 29, 2002) that Osama bin Laden is hiding in Pakistan and Pakistani intelligence officials are aware of it. Islamabad denied his claim.

Al Qaeda terror suspects in custody by Federal officials in the U.S. had documents in their possession about how to poison America's water supplies. The suspects, James Ujaama and Semi Osman, were part of the now-closed Dar-us-Salaam mosque in Seattle and Ujaama recently moved to Denver where he was arrested. Sources say the Ujaama brothers and Osman are all tied to a prominent radical Muslim cleric in London named Sheikh Abu Hamza Al-Masri. Investigators say they have evidence indicating that Al-Masri supplied the information about poisoning water supplies to both suspects.

Argentina's economic crisis has now spread to its neighbors Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay. It has threatened to engulf other politically unstable economies in the region as well, including Bolivia and Venezuela, where analysts predict deep recessions. Uruguay's government forced the banks to close and for them to reopen later. Depositors fear banks will freeze their money as banks did in Argentina. An economic crisis in South America would hurt an already sluggish global economy. Numerous nations in the region, such as Peru and Paraguay, have begun a wide embrace of U.S.-backed free market reforms fueling deadly rioting against privatization of state-run industries. South American officials have gone to Washington to seek loans from the U.S. Treasury, IMF and other foreign lenders. Americans could end up bailing them out. International Monetary Fund in Washington announced a $30 billion support package for Brazil. U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill vowed to help speed up Argentina's talks for bailout aid and gave battered Uruguayan banks a $1.5 billion emergency "bridge loan". There are arguments that corruption and government bungling are largely to blame for the economic crisis in South America. The U.S. debt along with the world derivatives and U.S. bailout of foreign countries is by far the world's greatest financial bomb that could explode into American bank failures in the United States.

The FBI wants to know who told CNN and other news outlets about two al Qaeda radio messages intercepted by the super-secretive National Security Agency prior to the Sept. 11 attacks. The messages, received Sept. 10, said "Tomorrow is zero hour" and "The match begins tomorrow." FBI agents began questioning Senators on the Intelligence Committee and are asking Hill staffers to submit to polygraph examinations. Most members of Congress say lawmakers should not submit to lie detector tests, citing the constitutional separation of powers between the legislative and executive branches of government and the unreliability of the exam. Some lawmakers are seeing it as a violation of the separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches. They are also troubled by the fact that the FBI is conducting a probe of Congress at the same time that a joint House-Senate Intelligence panel is looking into allegations of intelligence lapses by both the FBI and CIA before the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. The request for the FBI to investigate the leak came after the White House, most notably Vice President Cheney, complained in late June of 2002. The news reports about the NSA intercepts appeared just two days after CIA Director George Tenet, FBI Director Robert Mueller and Air Force Lt. Gen. Michael Hayden, the head of the NSA, testified in a closed-door session before the joint panel. Both House and Senate rules specifically state that leaks of classified information should be investigated by the Congressional ethics committees. Legal experts believe that the FBI probe raises broader constitutional questions on the separation of powers and whether this investigation would violate the historical balance between the various branches of government. A former House deputy general counsel and law professor said that "calling in the Justice Department is absurd because Congress itself would mete out any punishment, and this just undermines the intelligence committees' vital independence from those who are supposed to be under its scrutiny. The power to investigate leak allegations is the power to control. You seriously undermine the Intelligence committees' ability, at a critical historic moment, to look independently and critically at the intelligence agencies." While the probe might not discover the source of the leaks, it may "put a chill" on the willingness of lawmakers to talk. The Bush administration has aggressively tried to close down sources of news reporting that reveals information that is potentially embarrassing or, in the administration's view, harmful to national security.

The FBI wants information on any contact those senators had with reporters between noon on June 18 to 3:15 p.m. on June 19. That is when CNN reported the details of two Arabic-language messages the National Security Agency intercepted Sept. 10 making vague references to an impending attack on the United States. Other news organizations also reported on the messages. The FBI previously asked lawmakers to consider taking lie detector tests. Several objected to the request, saying it intruded into the separation of powers between the congressional and executive branches of government. The FBI did not pursue it. The leaks angered the White House and Vice President Dick Cheney.

The Palestinian militant group Hamas claimed responsibility for the cafeteria blast at the Mt. Scopus campus at Jerusalem's Hebrew University that killed seven people, including five Americans, on August 1, 2002. Hamas called it revenge for an Israeli attack last week in Gaza that killed the leader of its military wing and 14 others. Israelis, Arabs, as well as four Americans and three South Koreans were among the 80 wounded in the school. The bomb, laden with nails and other metal objects, was in a bag left on a table in the center of the cafeteria and was detonated remotely by cellular phone.

Loopholes still render U.S. visa process inadequate
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/usatoday/20020805/cm_usatoday/4333080

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is working with the CIA's technology branch to develop data-mining techniques in order to better analyze communications. The work involves detection of specific keywords and topics across a variety of media. The Intelligence Technology Innovation Center (ITIC), which is under CIA's administration, will develop data-mining techniques that can extract underlying patterns and create predictive abilities from massive sets of data, such as television broadcasts and Web pages. Cooperation between the ITIC and the CIA is made possible through the interagency Knowledge Discovery and Dissemination (KDD) program. The research will involve experts in computer science and will focus on data streams and data sharing. With audio and video streaming there is little hope of saving information, because the databases are constantly in flux and you have to make real-time decisions on what to save. So researchers will work on mining underlying patterns and trends while pinpointing changes in those patterns. This work will involve both topic and word "spotting," or detecting specific words or word clusters. SRI International will investigate ways to enable machines to recognize individuals by the way they talk, a sophisticated capability that goes far beyond existing voice-recognition technology. This research includes "talk printing," or identifying the specific ways in which individuals talk, including pauses or speech inflections. In another project, researchers at Columbia University are working on a system to track patterns in data types from broadcast news programs, online chat rooms, e-mail and voice mail and then automatically generate a summary of information about a specific event. They will take large numbers of messages and produce short summaries that take into consideration both time factors and changing news reports to determine the most accurate information. Scientists at IBM's T.J. Watson Research Center are working to create a topic-spotting method that can search for a specific area of interest in all languages.
http://www.cise.nsf.gov/

Local and National Offices Have Yet to Disclose Advice People Could Use in a Terrorist Attack
Government Is Slow to Offer Safety Plans
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47958-2002Aug5.html

The U.S. Department of Justice ordered secrecy measures and is withholding from the public a tape of emergency radio transmissions between firefighters of the New York Fire Department (NYFD) during the World Trade Center terrorist attacks. It proves that the firefighters reached much higher than previously reported to the public. They reached the 78th floor Sky Lobby of the South Tower. The flimsy pretext for the DOJ keeping it secret is the tape may be used as evidence in the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, accused of conspiracy in the Sept. 11 attacks. The 78-minute tape was found in the rubble but fire officials could not listen and play the tape for themselves until they signed a confidentiality agreement with the DOJ. The public news report about the tape was not made until August 2002.

FBI wiretap recorded sounds of Trade Center tragedy
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/story/8808p-8281c.html
http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/DailyNews/sept11_audio020806.html
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,59750,00.html

Switzerland's federal police authorities said that suspected al-Qaida members used Swiss prepaid cellphone cards to make calls in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The cards enable cellphone users to buy call time in advance rather than being billed later. They can be purchased without showing identification making it impossible to trace calls made using a card. Mohamed Atta, a suspected leader of the hijacking teams that hit the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, spent several hours in Zurich on his way from Miami to Madrid last July 2001.

There is growing concern that terrorists will attack ships to inflict heavy casualties, damage to property, and disrupt the wheels of international commerce.

The case against Jose Padilla, whose detention for allegedly plotting to build a "dirty bomb" was dramatically announced in June 2002 by U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, is going nowhere and appears to have been "blown out of all proportion. The Justice Department has brought no charges against Padilla and many U.S. officials now acknowledge that his alleged plot "had never moved beyond talk." "If Padilla had any accomplices in the U.S. they have never been found -- or even identified," this quoted an intelligence official as saying the idea of a plot was "blown out of all proportion." U.S. authorities were not even interested in making a case against Padilla, but intend to force him to tell what he knows about al Qaeda.

Analyzing data from the U.S. Census and the Immigration and Naturalization Service, it is projected that an additional 1.1 million Middle Eastern immigrants would arrive in the United States by 2010, bringing the total above 2.5 million. The INS estimates that 150,000, or 10 percent of Middle Eastern immigrants, are in the country illegally. The wave of immigration might lead to changes in U.S. policy towards the Arab-Israeli conflict as elected officials responded to the increased importance of the Muslim community.

Osama bin Laden ordered the assassination of Afghan opposition leader Ahmed Shah Massood days before the Sept. 11 attacks, a senior ex-Taliban official has said.

Members of an Iranian rebel group alleged that Iran's government is close to completing at least two secret sites to support its nuclear weapons program. Officials with the National Council of Resistance of Iran said the sites are a nuclear fuel production plant and research lab at Natanz and a heavy water production plant at Arak. Both sites are in central Iran south of the capital of Tehran.

President Bush blocked $5.1 billion that Congress had approved for homeland security, including millions of dollars for the nation's firefighters, and scolded lawmakers for lumping in unrelated projects he did not want.

The General Accounting Office estimates it could take 5 to 10 years before a Homeland Security Department can "provide meaningful and sustainable results." Such a long time frame runs counter to the repeated statements from President Bush and congressional leaders that to safeguard Americans from the growing threat of terrorism inside U.S. borders, the agency must be operational immediately. Many experts and lawmakers say it is risky to embark on massive, long-term bureaucratic change at such an uncertain time. To protect the American people as soon as possible, an unwieldy department of this size and scope is not the way to go said some critics. President Bush has proposed folding all or parts of 22 agencies, including the Customs Service, Secret Service, Border Patrol, Coast Guard, Immigration and Naturalization Service and Transportation Security Agency. The CIA and FBI would not be part of the new department but would be required to share intelligence with it. Initial transition cost estimates of $3 billion over the next five years do not take into account a new headquarters. Overcoming resistance to change and getting the new agency on the right course will take strong and visionary leadership. The White House has chosen a senior intelligence analyst to head the unit at the proposed Homeland Security Department. John Gannon, former chairman of the National Intelligence Council and previously a CIA deputy director for intelligence, will take charge of the intelligence unit of the new department. Congress has not yet approved final legislation to create the new cabinet-level agency, the largest government reorganization in half a century, but the administration has begun preliminary planning for it.

Relatives of victims of the 11 September attacks have filed a 15-count, trillion-dollar [different media agencies reported different dollar values] federal lawsuit against various parties accusing them of financing Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda terror network and Afghanistan's former Taliban regime. Those accused include the country of Sudan, three members of the Saudi royal family - including the Saudi foreign minister - and eight Islamic foundations and chariities, in addition to seven international banks and the Bin Laden family's Saudi construction firm. The individuals named in the lawsuit include Osama bin Laden and several of his family members as well as three members of the Saudi royal family: Turki al Faisal al Saud, Sultan bin Abdul Aziz al Saud and Mohammed al Faisal al Saud including Saudi Defense Minister Prince Sultan [the third highest official in the kingdom]. The banks named in the case are Al Baraka Investment and Development Corp, National Commercial Bank, Faisal Islamic Bank, Al Rajhi Banking and Investment, Al Barakaat Exchange LLC, Dar Al Maal Al Islami and Al Shamal Islamic Bank. The charitable groups include the International Islamic Relief Organization, Sanabel Al Kheer Inc, Muslim World League, Saar Foundation, Rabita Trust, Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, Benevolence International Foundation and the World Assembly of Muslim Youth. It was filed on August 15, 2002 in the US District Court of the District of Colombia. They also accused the US Government of failing to pursue such institutions thoroughly enough because of lucrative oil interests.
http://news.findlaw.com/legalnews/us/terrorism/cases/civil.html

Several Saudi banks and Islamic charities named in a lawsuit by families of Sept. 11 victims vehemently denied Sunday any role in funding terrorism and blasted the case as an attempt to extort Saudi wealth abroad. "This is an act to extort Saudi money deposited in the United States and a way of meddling in the region," an official at Al Rajhi Investment and Development Corp, one of several Saudi banks named in the lawsuit said.

A group of Saudis the majority of whom are students who had been attending American universities and were forced to leave plan to sue the U.S. government and media organizations for the alleged psychological and financial damage they suffered in the aftermath of September 11. The potential plaintiffs included Saudis whose names had initially been listed among the hijackers of the planes that crashed into U.S. landmarks. Others want to sue U.S. law enforcement officers for harassing them in the hunt for the perpetrators.

If the federal government thinks the possibility of a smallpox attack by terrorists is real enough to perhaps vaccinate 500,000 health care and safety workers so they can respond to such an assault, why shouldn't the rest of us be inoculated as well? In June of 2002, a government advisory panel had recommended that only some 10,000 to 20,000 health care professionals be immunized against smallpox. The other 280 million-plus Americans would have to wait until there was an actual outbreak. This is careless of America's government. We should start voluntary inoculations now so health care providers would have an opportunity to screen people at risk from the vaccine's side effects. It should also be made clear that if you choose to be vaccinated you give up the right to sue.

Israel is urging U.S. officials not to delay a military invasion against Iraq's Saddam Hussein. Israeli intelligence officials said they have gathered evidence that Iraq is speeding up efforts to produce biological and chemical weapons. Israel said an order Saddam gave to Iraq's Atomic Energy Commission last week was to speed up development of nuclear weapons. If America attacks Iraq, some experts believe Iraq would attack Israel provoking Israel to strike back with Israel's nuclear weapons causing an Armageddon in the Middle East. Some also say an attack on Iraq without good evidence at this time could destroy the global counterterrorist campaign.

Pentagon officials worry that countries such as Iraq and Iran, as well as terrorist networks including al-Qaida, may be striving to develop cruise missiles that could be launched from ships adjacent to population centers in the US or from any kind of platform close to American targets around the world. The latest intelligence reports suggest that at least 81 countries have cruise missiles of some kind, totaling more than 70,000 weapons. Such weapons could theoretically be fitted not just with explosive warheads, but with chemical, biological or nuclear payloads. Cruise missiles have to be fired much closer to their targets, however they pose particular threats because they fly low and can elude radar. It would take significant work to build a network to protect the entire US coastline against them.

Although the U.S. government labels Iraq as a sponsor of terrorism, Saddam Hussein government exports relatively little compared to some of its neighbors, U.S. officials say. Many U.S. officials now discount reports that Mohammed Atta, the chief hijacker on Sept. 11, met with an Iraqi intelligence operative in Prague in April 2001. The Iraqi government denied such a meeting ever occurred, and charged the reports were fabricated to justify making Iraq a target in the U.S.-led war on terror. Atta is now believed to have been in the United States during the time he was supposed to have been meeting with the Iraqi operative. U.S. counterterrorism officials have been searching high and low for evidence linking Iraq to international terrorist networks but they have come up with few hard connections. The U.S. government also says Iraq supports the People's Mujahadeen of Iran, a group dedicated to the overthrow of the religious government of Iran. Officials say that while opposing the United States is a common goal, bin Laden's motivations are religious, while Saddam's are to seek secular power.

Islamic extremists may have tested chemical or biological weapons at a small facility in Kurdish-controlled (anti-Saddam) northern Iraq. The Kurdish group, known as Ansar al-Islam, remains a serious concern because of indications they are connected to the al-Qaida terrorist network. American intelligence agencies had reason to suspect that the facility, in a part of northern Iraq not under Saddam's control, was a crude laboratory for chemical and biological weapons activity that included testing on barnyard animals and at least on one man. U.S. officials believe the terrorists tested a biological toxin known as ricin, a deadly poison made from the castor bean plant. Ansar al-Islam controls a handful of Iraqi Kurdish villages that border with Iran, on the eastern end of the US-protected Kurdish safe area in northern Iraq. The official would not say whether the facility was still in operation. Saddam Hussein's eldest son has accused Iran of being behind the group of militant Islamists called Jund al-Islam in Kurdish-run northern Iraq and dismissed claims that it was connected with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. Recent reports, however, have named the Islamic militants in the area as Ansar al-Islam.

A national sweep by federal agents started last fall known as "Operation Tarmac" has uncovered immigration violations and document fraud of airport workers, many with access to restricted areas such as planes and runways.

The United States is wasting huge sums of money on technology meant to thwart attacks on airliners when it should rely more on profiling to identify would-be terrorists backed by such things as cockpit fortifications and enhanced check-in precautions, a trade group for U.S. airlines said. Among the big players in the business are Lockheed Martin Corp., Boeing Co. and Northrop Grumman Corp., the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 U.S. defense contractors, respectively. Another big contractor, Raytheon Co., has been involved in installations.

Abu Nidal, the Palestinian terrorist, was killed on the orders of Saddam Hussein after refusing to train al-Qaeda fighters based in Iraq. While in Baghdad, Abu Nidal, whose real name was Sabri al-Banna, came under pressure from Saddam to help train groups of al-Qaeda fighters who moved to northern Iraq after fleeing Afghanistan. Saddam also wanted Abu Nidal to carry out attacks against the US and its allies. When Abu Nidal refused, Saddam ordered his intelligence chiefs to assassinate him. He was shot dead when Iraqi security forces burst into his apartment in central Baghdad. The Iraqi authorities later claimed that Abu Nidal had killed himself when confronted with evidence that he was involved in a plot to overthrow Saddam.

Chinese analysts had accused Washington of double standards for not supporting the war on terror. When top U.S. envoy for counterterrorism visited China in December 2001, he said the United States did not view the East Turkestan Islamic Movement in the northwest region of Xinjiang as a terrorist organization. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said - August 27, 2002 - Washington is now putting the Islamic group seeking independence for part of China on its list of terrorist organizations. In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the movement was not on the top-priority list of foreign terrorist organizations but on a broader list of groups and individuals subject to financial sanctions. The broader list is based on an executive order issued by President Bush after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. The order prohibits financial transactions with the hundreds of entities on the list and blocks their assets.

Reported August 27, 2002 - The FBI this week will go back inside an anthrax-contaminated building owned by tabloid publisher American Media Inc., where an employee was fatally infected in October 2001. Agents will use newly developed techniques to search for anthrax spores and other evidence throughout the building. The building has been under federal quarantine since October, when photo editor Robert Stevens died after becoming infected at his desk. He was the first person and only Floridian to die during the anthrax attacks last fall, which killed five people. While transmission by mail was suspected at AMI, investigators never determined how anthrax spores entered the building. The original investigation did not locate a "dissemination device" or large quantities of spores. Legislation is being introduced to require the federal government to help decontaminate the building, fearing a hurricane could spread spores. The legislation would allow the federal government to take over the building and use it as a laboratory to study anthrax. AMI executives, who are unable to clean up the building on their own, have offered to give the building to the government. The fenced and guarded building has stood vacant since employees evacuated it in October and they could not take anything out of the infested building.

World oil prices simmered close to their highest in a year as renewed talk of a U.S. military assault on Iraq exacerbated fears of tight petroleum inventories ahead of winter. Oil importing nations such as the United States are afraid that oil prices around $30 a barrel threaten economic growth.

Bombing the Iraq sites would only spread the chemical or biological agents, killing innocent Iraqi civilians and threatening invading forces. The allies could ensure that the weapons could not be used in any effective way by using tactical nuclear earth-penetrating weapons intended precisely to destroy deep underground targets such as command bunkers and chemical and biological weapons stores and by a new type of radio frequency weapon, E-Bomb, to cripple the plants' refrigeration and computer systems. E-Bombs can be delivered by cruise missile, by smart bomb, or by unmanned aerial vehicles. As it approaches its target, an array of aerials spring out and its capacitors discharge themselves, sending out a burst of high-powered microwave energy to disable electrical and electronic systems. A high-power microwave weapon produces a near-instantaneous electrical pulse or “spike” that destroys computer memories and damages electrical components. It could disable the radio, radar, and computer systems on which modern defenses depend. Some cruise missiles may disperse long carbon fiber strands to short-circuit electrical switching stations. A new type of weapon, a version of the Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser (WCMD) may be used that disperses huge numbers of microscopic carbon fibers that drift in the wind. These can get into even the smallest of electrical components, damaging computers, air conditioners, communications equipment and anything else with electrical circuits. These weapons will also bring the civil infrastructure to a standstill, closing national electricity grids, sewage and water purification plants will not operate, stopping telephone, radio and television systems.

U.S. weapons ready for battlefield deployment include a microwave bomb that emits powerful pulses of energy to destroy enemy electronics, disable communications and even block vehicle ignitions, without hurting bystanders. Microwave bombs known as directed-energy weapons destroy electronic systems but in theory do not harm people or damage buildings. Defense researchers also have successfully tested a radical thermobaric warhead "vacuum bomb" to be used on suspected chemical and biological stockpiles. The warheads are designed to produce heat so intense that any contaminants released into the atmosphere are neutralized instantly. The upgraded thermobaric or fuel-air system produces a high-temperature incendiary blast that creates a long period of intense heat at low pressure, preventing the dispersal of poisonous agents. The warhead also produces a disinfectant chlorine gas that minimizes the risk of contamination.

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush told Muslim leaders August 26 that the state will assess the safety of all Florida mosques and Islamic schools following the arrest of a Jewish doctor accused of plotting to blow up Islamic buildings. Officers with the state's regional anti-terrorism task forces will visit 200 mosques and schools. "We're here to provide a level of security," Bush told the Muslim leaders. Robert J. Goldstein, 37, was arrested August 23 and charged with possession of a non-registered destructive device and attempting to use an explosive to damage and destroy Islamic centers. He was being held without bond at Hillsborough County Jail. Deputies found more than 30 explosive devices, including hand grenades and a 5-gallon gasoline bomb with a timer and a wire attached, and a cache of up to licensed 40 weapons, including .50-caliber machine guns and sniper rifles, during a search of Goldstein's Seminole home, court records said. They say they also found a typed list of about 50 Islamic worship centers in the state and a detailed plan for bombing an Islamic education center. The magnitude of planning that was involved shows that this is not something designed by one individual. Bush also suggested members of the Muslim community join him on Sept. 11 to mark the one-year anniversary or the terrorist attacks.

Saudi Arabia believes that invading Iraq and changing the regime would only create a Karzai-style government in Baghdad having far-reaching dangerous consequences in the future. It will only breed more conflicts in the region. For this and other reasons, Riyadh does not and will not support military action. The Riyadh government cabinet has warned of a human tragedy if Washington attacks Iraq, and called for resolving the crisis through diplomacy. "The thing the kingdom fears most is an incomplete US operation. It would certainly result in a bloody situation of large numbers of refugees and armed conflicts.

Iraq may still possess tons of chemical warfare agents, the necessary materials to produce thousands of liters of biological agents and as many as 10 Scud missiles with which to deliver them.
The Iraqi chemical warfare arsenal is known to include:
* The nerve agents Sarin and VX. Colorless and tasteless, they cause death by respiratory arrest in one to 15 minutes.
* Blister agents such as mustard gas. Severely incapacitating, they damage tissue, causing extensive large blisters.
* Psychoactive agents such as Agent 15. Symptoms include dizziness, vomiting and hallucinations lasting for days. Biological warfare agents produced by Iraq include:
* Anthrax. Symptoms initially resemble that of a common cold and are only identifiable in the fatal phase. Once this begins, vomiting, severe head and joint pain, and respiratory distress will lead to death in one to three days.
* Botulinum. Causes botulism. Symptoms include nausea, diarrhea, paralysis of the throat and convulsions, followed by death due to respiratory arrest.
* Aflotoxins. Poisons produced by fungi and mould, they have the capacity to cause liver cancer.
* Ricin. Inhalation leads to weakness, fever and pulmonary edema within 24 hours followed by death.
* Clostridium perfringens. A bacterium which causes gangrene.

Al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper said Osama bin Laden was well, "safe" and planning new attacks on the United States that will coincide with an U.S. attack on Iraq. He would want to capitalize on this to appeal to the Arab street so he will probably delay any attacks until the United States moves on Iraq.

Director of Homeland Security Tom Ridge said - August 26, 2002 - cells of Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network are operating in the United States. There were still glaring weaknesses in security which terrorists could easily exploit, he said. Although airline safety has improved, he added, the threat from chemical and biological weapons remains a particular concern. Mr. Ridge conceded that further terrorist strikes were virtually inevitable. Ports are another area of weakness, he said, and a possible entry point for chemical and biological weapons.

Jewish High Holy Days also have become a time to brace against possible terrorist attacks. Police will increase patrols around synagogues beginning the evening of Sept. 6, with the start of Rosh Hashanah, until the end of Yom Kippur, Sept. 16. The anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks fell in the middle of the Jewish holidays.

The United States has received reports that al Qaida leaders Saif al-Adl and Abu Hafs the Mauritanian are alive and operating in eastern Iran along with dozens of Al-Qaeda fighters, but have not verified them, a U.S. official said. Iran rejected on Wednesday an U.S. newspaper report that it was harboring two deputies of Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.

Many American cities are vastly unprepared to deliver lifesaving vaccinations should terrorists attack with smallpox, with a slew of logistical and policy problems still unresolved, federal advisers said. Many communities have yet to figure out where to set up clinics, who will administer the shots and how to educate masses of people about the health risks the vaccine carries. Federal and local officials are dealing with a myriad of problems involving delivery of the vaccine on a mass scale.

Planning for an attack on the United States began in October 1999 at the latest, and the hijackers had decided the World Trade Center as the target of an attack as early April or May 2000, Germany's federal prosecutor said on August 29, 2002.

The Arab men arrested in Detroit shortly after Sept. 11, 2001 were accused of acting as "a covert underground support unit" and a "sleeper operational combat cell" for a radical Islamic movement allied with al-Qaida. The indictments and information about this case was not made public until August 29, 2002. Among the discoveries in the apartment was videotape with surveillance footage of Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., and the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, the indictment said. Previously known to have been found in the apartment were a sketch of an air base in Incerlik, Turkey, used by American forces, notes referring to the "American foreign minister," and audio tapes preaching jihad. A hospital in Amman, Jordan was also said to be a target of a potential attack. As part of the alleged conspiracy, the Detroit-area men had phony identification documents, worked at Detroit Metropolitan Airport, and familiarized themselves with its security procedures, the indictment said. They were dishwashers at LSG Sky Chefs International, a company that makes meals for airline passengers, in the summer of 2001. The indictment said all three "attempted to locate security breaches that would allow them to, among other things, directly access airliners." In addition, one of them worked at an ice cream parlor that was beyond the security checkpoint. A testimony at an April detention hearing said that anyone in the defendant's position could have easily passed a weapon to a boarding passenger. Some of the more than 100 audiotapes found in the apartment where the three men lived espoused a fundamentalist brand of Islam called the Salafiyya, a term taken from the Arabic words for the "venerable forefathers" of Islam. Salafists believe that much of Islam today has been corrupted and they espouse a return to strict Islamic law, and more militant adherents also believe Western governments, as well as those of moderate Arab nations, should be overthrown.

An expert group authorized by the United Nations Security Council to monitor UN sanctions released a draft report - August 29, 2002 - saying the al-Qaida terror network has the money and recruits to strike again whenever and wherever it wants because a global campaign and UN sanctions have failed to stop the financing and support for Osama bin Laden's backers. Despite initial successes after Sept. 11 in locating and freezing some $112 million in assets belonging to al-Qaida and its associates, it said only about $10 million has been frozen since January. "Al-Qaida continues to have access to considerable financial and other economic resources," it said. Citing information from government officials and other sources, the experts said al-Qaida is continuing to receive financial support from bin Laden's personal inheritance and investments, from its own members and supporters, and from contributions from charitable organizations. Estimates of the value of the portfolio managed on behalf of bin Laden and al-Qaida by unidentified intermediaries range from $30 million to $300 million, the draft report said. "The funds collected and disbursed by a number of Islamic based charities is proving particularly difficult for governments to monitor and regulate," it said. The draft report called on states to exercise greater surveillance over the operation of charities and to make greater efforts to track down and close businesses and organizations supporting al-Qaida. Many countries in Europe, North America and elsewhere have taken steps to tighten banking regulations and to trace and block financial transactions which has led al-Qaida to transfer much of its financial activities to Africa, the Middle East and Asia, the draft report said. "Al-Qaida is believed to rely now even more heavily on hawala or other alternative remittance systems," it said, calling for increased vigilance of such transactions. Hawala refers to an informal network for transferring funds outside normal banking and government controls. The draft report also calls for the UN list to be treated by all states as the authoritative list. It noted a reluctance by some countries to submit names of individuals and groups believed to be associated with al-Qaida. The U.S. Treasury Department, responding to the draft report, said it was confident that efforts to disrupt terrorist finances "are having real-world effects" and that al-Qaida is suffering financially.
http://www.un.org/Docs/sc/committees/1373/ ?

Financial officers of al Qaeda and the Taliban have quietly shipped large quantities of gold out of Pakistan to Sudan, transiting through the United Arab Emirates and Iran, according to European, Pakistani and U.S. investigators. The movement of gold also highlighted three significant developments in the war on terrorism: the growing role of Iranian intelligence units allied with the country's hard-line clerics in protecting and aiding al Qaeda; the potential reemergence of Sudan as a financial center for the organization; and the ability of the terrorist group to generate new sources of revenue despite the global crackdown on its finances. European terrorism experts said they were particularly troubled by indications that Iranian intelligence officials were taking an active role in moving the gold. The sources said there were credible reports that some of the gold was flown on Iranian airplanes to Sudan. Arab intelligence sources have reported that Iran is sheltering senior al Qaeda military and financial leaders in hotels and guest houses in the Afghan border cities of Mashhad and Zabol. European officials said some of the chartered planes used to transport the gold and other commodities for the Taliban and al Qaeda were linked to Victor Bout, a Russian arms merchant who maintains more than 50 aircraft in the United Arab Emirates. U.S. officials have called Bout the largest arms merchant in the world and say he has long had dealings with the Taliban, flying in weapons and medicine for the group when it governed Afghanistan. Despite an international arrest warrant issued in February for his arrest, Bout lives undisturbed in Moscow.

A Swedish citizen suspected of conspiring with a former Seattle man to open a terrorist training camp in Oregon also has links to a Swedish suspected of planning to hijack an airliner in Europe last week. Oussama Kassir, 36, an unemployed engineer in Stockholm, was an unnamed and uncharged co-conspirator in the indictment of James Ujaama last week. Federal officials say Kassir and another man went to Bly, Ore., with Ujaama in late 1999 to scout out a ranch as a training camp for the al-Qaida terrorist network. Authorities have not connected Kassir to the August 29th arrest of Kerim Sadok Chatty, who was stopped in Vaesteraas, Sweden, after a handgun was found in his carry-on bag as he was boarding a Ryanair flight to London. Chatty, 29, who trained at an American flight school in 1996, was being held yesterday pending charges for allegedly planning to hijack the Boeing 737. But Kassir admits he is a friend of Chatty's and says he taught Chatty to pray while they were in a Swedish prison together in the late 1990s. The two were close, Kassir said, and he last talked to Chatty about a month ago.

To survive the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the right thing to do was to follow instinct, not procedure. Don't wait to find out what is happening. Don't go back for your briefcase. Don't heed announcements that the building is safe. Don't take the stairs; take the elevator.
Delay Meant Death On 911
http://www.usatoday.com/news/sept11/year-later-index.htm

The CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies are not relaying what they know about potential bioterrorism threats to the appropriate public health officials, making it difficult to plan counter-strategies to deal with an attack and protect citizens.
CIA Not Sharing Bioterror Knowledge With Public Officials
http://upi.com/results.cfm?Keywords=bioterrorism

The Sept. 11 attacks will cost New York City $83 billion to $95 billion, partly depending upon how many jobs are permanently shifted out of the city. The Bush administration has promised the city $21.4 billion in aid. The cost of the damage to New York City dwarfs the most expensive natural disaster in U.S. history, Hurricane Andrew, which hurtled across the Florida Peninsula south of Miami in 1992, killing 28 people and causing more than $25 billion in damage.

A Canadian defence committee report on security has warned that the country's coastlines are extremely vulnerable to terrorist attacks and are calling on the Canadian Government to reform its coastal monitoring methods and co-ordinate more with the United States.

Credible reports indicate that Syria has allowed as many as 200 al Qaeda gunmen to settle in the Ein Hilwe Palestinian camp near Sidon. Syria never demonstrated the slightest inclination to crack down on any of the other terrorist groups it hosts, including Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Reversing course, the Bush administration said it would go along with arming commercial pilots, provided a long list of safety and training concerns are addressed. The Bush administration has realized that the momentum in Congress favoring arming pilots is strong.

A new al-Qaida training videotape, captured in Afghanistan, shows terrorists techniques intended for use inside the United States of America. In one scenario on the video, terrorists pretend to be stranded on a six-lane highway, their vehicle disabled. When a police officer stops to assist, the driver blows his horn. Another occupant of the vehicle opens fire on the police officer with a rifle. In other scenarios, shooters were concealed in the trunk of the car. When the terrorists were picked up by accomplices in a getaway car, the original vehicle was blown up, apparently to destroy evidence. In another scenario, an innocuous-looking terrorist knocks on the door of a residence, standing in view of the resident and answering questions through a closed door. When the resident opens the door, the terrorist immediately draws his weapon and fires, emptying his weapon into the victim. In the golf course assassination, the target was on the green, near the hole. A rocket-propelled grenade is fired at a vehicle adjacent to the green, perhaps a security detail. Then the target of the assassination is killed with rifle fire.
The training video shows al-Qaida operatives practicing the following kinds of assaults:
* using pickup trucks with shooters concealed in the bed of the trucks
* using motorcycles as a shooting platform for drive-bys and assassinations
* execution of prisoners
* ambushes of law-enforcement officers
* residential assassinations
* assassination on a golf course using a rocket-propelled grenade and rifle fire
* drive-up kidnapping of target walking on a street
* use of tunnels, storm drains and sewers for infiltration during urban raids
* rappelling from rooftops of buildings to make entry on upper floors
* use of motorcycles for grenade attacks
* raids on buildings with large numbers of occupants perhaps schools or office buildings

A 400-page study compiled by Privacy International and the US-based Electronic Privacy Information Center paints a grim picture of the state of privacy in a post-11 September world. Go to page 1 and privacy links for details.

Israel has warned the Libya could become the first Arab nation with nuclear weapons. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Libya is working with such countries as Iraq, North Korea and Saudi Arabia to develop missiles and weapons of mass destruction. Sharon indicated that Libya has obtained expertise to launch a project to develop nuclear weapons.

Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network could be preparing for another major terrorist attack on a target in the United States or Europe as soon as the end of this year, a French terrorism expert said. He estimated it would take between a year and 16 months after the Sept. 11, 2001 assaults for al-Qaida to prepare for another operation.

German officials said they had arrested an apparent follower of Osama bin Laden and his American girlfriend for planning attacks on U.S. sites to mark the anniversary of the September 11 attack. Osman Petmezci, 24, and his American fiancee Astrid Eyzaguirre, 23, were arrested near Heidelberg, home to U.S. Army Europe headquarters in southwestern Germany. Police had found shells for five bombs and 130 kg (287 pounds) of chemicals and electrical material. The suspect worked in a chemical factory in the western city of Karlsruhe. German authorities have found no al-Qaida terror links to a Turkish man and his American fiancee arrested for plotting an attack on U.S. military bases in Germany. Inside the apartment, police found 287 pounds of bomb-making chemicals, five pipe bombs ready to be filled with explosives, a book about bomb-making and a picture of Osama bin Laden. An unidentified neighbor said that a few drops of a chemical spattered onto his head from Petmezci's balcony two months ago, sending him screaming with pain into the stairwell. Petmezci apologized, saying he was using paint thinner to remodel the apartment.

Saddam Hussein probably does not have a nuclear bomb but the Iraqi president does have the designs, equipment and expertise to build one quickly if he can get enough weapons-grade uranium or plutonium, the former inspectors and other experts says. Experts disagree on how close Iraq could be to making a nuclear bomb with estimates ranging from months to years though they agree that if Saddam could obtain stolen uranium or plutonium he could have a bomb ready relatively quickly. Iraq probably possesses large stockpiles of nerve agents, mustard gas and anthrax. Saddam probably also has at least nine long-range Scud missiles, and has or easily could make chemical and biological weapons to arm those missiles. Still, many former inspectors say Iraq's arsenal is not much of a threat. They say Saddam has been deterred so far by threats of massive retaliation by the United States and other countries and apparently has been reluctant to share his weapons with terrorists. Iraq has experimented with using small military training jets as remote-controlled drones, which could deliver biological or chemical weapons. Saddam also modified fuel tanks for supersonic MiG-21 fighters with sprayers for biological or chemical weapons. Chemical and biological weapons are more of a threat to civilians than to U.S. or coalition soldiers, who have vaccines, protective gear and training to protect themselves.

Military jets have resumed round-the-clock patrols over New York and Washington as the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks approaches. Pentagon officials declined to say whether the resumption of air patrols was because of a specific threat or because of the one-year anniversary of the attacks.

The United States and the United Nations ignored a warning secretly sent them by the Taliban foreign minister just a few hours prior to the September 11 attacks. The warning, sent by an aide to then-Taliban foreign minister Waqil Ahmed Mutawakil, said that Osama bin Laden was planning to carry out a massive terror attack on U.S. soil, which would result in the deaths of thousands of people. Mutawakil was very worried and sent his assistant to contact the U.S. consulate in Peshawar, on the Afghanistan/Pakistan border, as well as with UN representatives. The man managed to make contact and pass on the warning, as well as a request that the U.S. take military action against the Taliban.

At first, FBI director Bob Mueller insisted there was nothing the FBI could have done to penetrate the 911 terrorist attacks. That account has been modified over time and may change again. One of the FBI’s informants had a close relationship with two of the hijackers because he was their roommate. The connection was recently discovered by congressional investigators and has stunned some top counterterrorism officials and raised new concerns about the information-sharing among U.S. law-enforcement and intelligence agencies. The two hijackers, Khalid Almihdhar and Nawaf Alhazmi left Malaysia and went to San Diego, where they took flight-school lessons. In September 2000, the two moved into the home of a Muslim man. The Muslim man, their landlord, regularly prayed with them and even helped one open a bank account. He was also a "tested" undercover "asset" who had been working closely with the FBI office in San Diego on terrorism cases related to Hamas. The CIA was gathering more information about just how potentially dangerous both men were.

FBI agents investigating 2001's deadly anthrax attacks returned for a second time - August 1, 2002 - to a former U.S. Army scientist's apartment near Fort Detrick, Maryland, in a new search for evidence. The FBI was also searching his storage unit in Marion county Florida as well as his car and his girlfriend's home. They have seized his computer and bags of personal items he had thrown away in preparation for moving. The scientist, Dr. Steven Hatfill, gave his consent at the end of June for the first FBI search of his residence. A FBI official said Hatfill had not been detained. FBI Director Robert Mueller would not comment on the latest search. Hatfill previously worked for the Army Medical Institute of Infectious Disease, center of the nation's biological warfare defense research, at Fort Detrick. He also previously worked at Science Applications International Corp., a defense contractor. The searches came up empty.
Could it be government's own people, trusted and respected people?
Who is Hatfill? http://cryptome.org/is-z-hatfill.htm - http://www.rense.com/general28/lnked.htm
http://www.google.com/search?&q=hatfill+anthrax
http://www.clickitnews.com/cgi-bin/anyboard.cgi/emergingdiseases?tK=hatfill&yVz=fI&cmd=find
http://www.rense.com/fastq.idq?CiScope=%2F&CiRestriction=hatfill+AND+anthrax
Text of Steven Hatfill's Statement - August 11, 2002
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020811/ap_on_re_us/anthrax_text_1
Steven Hatfill declared - August 25, 2002 - he had nothing to do with last fall's anthrax attacks and accused the FBI of hounding him and his girlfriend in order to give the appearance that it was making progress in the investigation.
http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/08/25/anthrax.hatfill/index.html
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2002-08-25-hatfill_x.htm
FBI agents searched the former home of Dr. Steven Hatfill, a focus of attention in the anthrax case, for the third time on September 11, 2002. Hatfill was not informed of the search and has not lived in the apartment in Frederick, Md., since Aug. 12. Hatfill's apartment has been searched twice before, the second time under warrant. A spokesman for the FBI's Washington field office had no comment on the matter. Hatfill was fired Sept. 3 from a job at Louisiana State University after the Justice Department sent his supervisor an e-mail ordering that Hatfill be barred from working on department funded projects.
FBI is tracking Hatfill

http://news.google.com/news?q=Hatfill&hl=en&scoring=d

Pakistan's U.N. ambassador said that U.S. military action against Iraq could lead India to launch an attack or provoke a conflict with Pakistan.

The authorities in Pakistan are on high alert ahead of the first anniversary of the 11 September attacks on the United States. Militants have been angered by Islamabad's support for the US-led "war on terror".

Osama bin Laden is still a hero for most people in the close U.S. ally nation of Kuwait, according to a poll. Some 74 percent of more than 15,000 people surveyed in Kuwait consider Osama bin Laden, head of the Al-Qaeda terror
network, a hero, a newspaper reported. America's rescued Kuwait from Saddam's Iraq in the Persian Gulf War. Senior Kuwaiti officials have come out strongly against the September attacks.

About 330 pounds of ammonium nitrate, which can be used as fertilizer or in explosives, was reported stolen Sept. 9, 2002, from a business near Austin, Texas. Authorities initially said 330 pounds of ammonium nitrate were missing but later determined only 30 pounds were stolen. The 24-year-old suspect admitted stealing a 30-pound tube of ammonium nitrate and dumping the fertilizer at a landfill after media coverage of the theft made him nervous.

On September 10, 2002 the Homeland Security Advisory System color code has changed for the first time from yellow (elevated threat) to orange (high threat) since they started using it. It was not quickly updated on their Web page just after it was reported by the news media! U.S. intelligence officials have been saying since the weekend that there has been an increased amount of chatter among al-Qaida sympathizers. The FBI issued a warning that became public on Sept. 9 asking police, operators of computer networks, utilities and transportation system to be wary during the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Security at federal buildings throughout Washington were increased. Meanwhile, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Vice President Dick Cheney had spent Monday night at a secure, undisclosed location "based on an ongoing review of information that is received as well as out of precaution." Fleischer declined to say how long Cheney had been there, or how long he would stay. Nine U.S. embassies overseas have been closed. The Pentagon's official security condition was moved to "Charlie", the second-highest of a four-level scale. The Pentagon had been at "Force Protection Condition Delta." Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld ordered that live anti-aircraft missiles be stationed at launchers that had been deployed around Washington. U.S. Navy officials in Bahrain issued a warning to shippers following unconfirmed reports that al-Qaida may be planning attacks on oil tankers.

City officials say that the government's color-coded terrorism alert system is not specific enough to be helpful. The cities are on the front line in terrorism and any specifics will be helpful. The federal Office of Homeland Security alerts needs to have additional information.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/homeland/

Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien has linked the Sept. 11 suicide attacks to the perceived arrogance and selfishness of the United States and the West. He suggest that the suicide hijackers might have been motivated by what he describes as the misguided policies of a rich and powerful West that did not understand the need for restraint. He said that there was "a lot of resentment" about the way in which powerful nations treated the increasing number of poor and dispossessed people in the world. "You know, the poor get relatively poorer all the time and the rich are getting richer all the time," he said. The local CBC radio station in Ottawa was flooded with calls from listeners backing Chretien.

Pleading for more money, the United Nations blamed a decade of "shameful neglect" by the world for Afghanistan descent into a breeding ground for international terrorists. Afghanistan's fragile government can barely cope with the influx of refugees, as it struggles to extend its control beyond the capital and impose security in lawless regions. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) warns that nearly one million people could face severe hardships this winter. "The international community has to follow through on its commitment, otherwise Afghan people will lose hope. And desperation breeds violence," he said.

In Baltimore, police and FBI agents were investigating six men, five of whom were foreign nationals being held on charges of immigration violations. The men are suspected of being part of a terrorist cell, according to a law-enforcement official. They were were arrested on September 10, 2002 at a Baltimore apartment. Among the items seized in the Baltimore raid were dozens of passports, fake identification cards, photographs of Times Square in New York City and Union Station in Washington, and notebooks containing Arabic writing and pamphlets on Islamic holy war. The ABC network reported that the computers contained links to a Web site called beapilot.com, which was linked to 1,700 flight schools.

Iraq Calls For Suicide Squads To Strike US Targets if America invades Baghdad.
"...The confrontation with the aggressors should transcend the means of condemnation and rejection, particularly in the Arab and Muslim street. They should use all means-and they are numerous-against the aggressors, including boycott, closing air and sea ports to civilian ships and airplanes that belong to the U.S. and its allies, striking their economic interests and establishments, and considering everything American as a military target, including embassies, installations, and American companies, and to create suicide/martyr [fidaiyoon] squads to attack American military and naval bases inside and outside the region, and mine the waterways to prevent the movement of war ships..."

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein threatened to destroy Qatar if Doha permits the US to use its military bases in attacking Iraq.

The leader of Malaysia's biggest Islamic opposition party has accused the West waging a "crusade" against Muslims since Sept. 11 and warned that U.S. military strikes against Iraq would raise the risk of more terrorist assaults inside America.

Singapore's government announced that it had arrested the 21 men in August 2002. Twenty-one suspects who were arrested in Singapore and thought linked to al-Qaida planned to attack a U.S. Navy ship and a bar frequented by American troops, as well as Singapore's Defense Ministry and water pipelines. The men were acting on orders from an Indonesian Muslim cleric, Riduan Isamuddin, also known as Hambali, said Singapore's Home Affairs Ministry. Hambali, whose whereabouts are unknown, is thought to be a leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, a regional group officials have linked to Osama bin Laden al-Qaida terror network. The operatives also allegedly targeted Jurong Island, an industrial area off Singapore's southern coast that is home to numerous chemical factories, the statement said. The group intended to portray its operations as attacks by the Malaysian government in order to create "animosity and distress between Malaysia and Singapore," the ministry said. The group hoped the resulting chaos would allow Malaysia's Muslim hard-liners to declare an Islamic state, it said.

Navy SEALs had been, and were still, involved in the inspection of a possibly radioactive container ship off the coast of New Jersey. The Liberian-flagged M/V Palermo Senator was ordered back to sea by the Coast Guard on September 11, 2002, after traces of radioactivity were found in the hold during a routine inspection at the Port of Newark. The 708-foot freighter, owned by a German subsidiary of South Korea-based Hanjin shipping, was anchored in an exclusion zone six miles from shore. U.S. Navy radiation specialists from the submarine base in Groton, Conn., were heading to the ship. The Palermo Senator had stopped in Singapore, Malaysia and Egypt, among other destinations, before docking at Newark on Sept. 10. Authorities would not say what the readings were, or whether they were at levels considered dangerous. Officials at the Energy Department did not immediately return a call seeking comment. "... the container of concern was not found to pose any risk to the public's health and safety. Out of an abundance of caution we will continue with the testing until 100 percent of the cargo has been assessed," said FBI Special Agent Sandra Carroll.

How Safe Are Our Borders? Customs Fails to Detect Depleted Uranium Carried From Europe to U.S.
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/DailyNews/sept11_uranium020911.html

Border agents warned of security lapses and said that the government is not where it wants to be in beefing up border security. It could take three years before the government has completely raised its level of security to the point where it should be.

Guards at the nation's 103 nuclear power plants are overworked, undertrained and outgunned and some of them doubt they could repel a terrorist attack, a study by a government watchdog group said. They worked 12-hour shifts for up to six consecutive days. They were plagued by fatigue during long and tedious night shifts. Most guards interviewed said they practice firing their weapons only once or twice a year during annual qualification tests, far less than the time necessary to become and remain proficient. Many guards have only shotguns while attackers would likely be armed with sophisticated assault rifles, grenades and automatic weapons.
Most security guards believe they can not defend nuclear power plants against a terrorist attack for the following reasons:
* Guards believe that they are not properly armed with weapons to defeat attackers
* Guards admit that they are under-qualified and under-trained with respect to gun-handling qualifications, physical fitness tests, and training exercises
* Guards are being hired with very little experience; in some cases guards are hired who meet just the minimum requirement of possessing a pistol permit
* Guards reported that qualifying exams for carrying weapons had been rigged, in some cases, to ensure guards could pass
* Guards say that security drills are carefully staged to ensure that mock attackers would be repelled
* Guards forced to work overtime (i.e. forced to work 6 or 7 straight days involving 12 hour to 16 hour shifts, even when ill)
* Guards suffer from a high fatigue level
* Guards have little confidence in their management in correcting past problems
* Guards suffer from low morale, and do not feel obligated to stand their post in the event of an attack; guards admit that if an attack occurred, they would
flee.

A recently intercepted phone call involving members of an alleged al-Qaeda cell arrested in Buffalo and Bahrain led authorities to believe that attacks on U.S. interests could be coming, according to officials who say the call was a factor in last week's decision to put the nation on ''high alert'' for attacks. FBI officials believe the men - Muhktar al-Bakri, 22, Shafal Mosed, 24; Faysal Galab, 26; Sahim Alwan, 29; Yasein Taher, 24; and Yahya Goba, 25 - made up a cell of al Qaeda operatives who received training at a terror camp in Afghanistan. The FBI monitored the alleged members of a terror cell in suburban Buffalo, N.Y. but it was a flurry of recent coded messages, including one that referred to the delivery of a "watermelon", that spurred authorities to make the arrest. On July 18, al-Bakri allegedly sent someone in the western New York area an e-mail entitled "The Big Meal." "I would like to remind you to obey God and keep him in your heart because the next meal will be very huge," said the e-mail, which was in Arabic. "No one will be able to withstand it except those with faith. There are people here who had vision and their visions will be explained that this thing will be very strong." Al-Bakri admitted to FBI officials that the "meal" referred to a large explosion or attack planned by al Qaeda against the United StatesThe arrests of the six men, September 13, came as agents investigated reports of a possible "dirty bomb" being moved across the border from Canada, sources said. For months before the men were arrested, the FBI monitored their communication, with taps on their telephones and their computers, and kept tabs on their movements.

When three Muslim men were halted en route to Miami last week in what turned out to be a false-alarm terror scare, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and others praised the police response as proof Florida's antiterrorism system works. Well, not exactly, it turns out. A closer look shows significant holes in the state network allowed the two cars involved to travel the length of Florida long after law enforcement was supposed to have been alerted they were on the highway. Their route passed by the Tampa Bay area the home to MacDill Air Force Base, a nuclear power plant, the gasoline storage tanks at Port of Tampa, and about 30 other significant potential terror targets. Fortunately, no evidence of terrorism surfaced, although police thought for a time the two-car caravan might be carrying explosives. Had the three men detained in the incident been terrorists, the gaps in the alert system would have given them hours and almost 400 miles in which to wreak havoc. The problems were in the Florida Highway Patrol's communications system. Because of them, the vehicles rolled south undetected past dozens of troopers. They finally were stopped by a Collier County sheriff's deputy on Alligator Alley, east of Naples. It's an unpopulated portion of Interstate 75 that passes through the Everglades to Miami. Police shut the highway down for 17 hours while bomb experts searched the cars. Thousands of motorists were detoured. Between five and ten highway patrol troopers were on the road unaware of the alert when the cars passed through Tampa, an agency spokesman said. And perhaps twice that many in other parts of Central and Southwest Florida didn't get the alert either. It was issued by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement at 3:49 p.m. September 12 after a woman reported overhearing the men discussing terrorism plans at a restaurant in Calhoun, Ga. The alert reached highway patrol headquarters in Tallahassee between 4 and 4:30 p.m. The cars were stopped at 1 a.m. September 13, about nine hours later. ``The system is new" [ a new digtial system that replaced the old reliable analog system at great expense to taxpayers ], "and there were a few glitches in some equipment,'' said highway patrol Lt. Sterling King, a spokesman for the agency's Troop C, based in Hillsborough County that patrols I-75 in Sumter, Hernando, Pasco and Hillsborough counties. At Troop F, which is responsible for a 150-mile stretch of I-75 through Manatee, Sarasota and Charlotte counties, troopers didn't get the alert either. The next time, information will be given to a commander who will decide whether to have the dispatcher give it out over the radio or by cellphone.

The war on terror and removal of the Taliban has been followed by a dramatic rise in Afghan opium cultivation as much as 1,400% since 2001.

"We now know that our inability to detect and prevent the Sept. 11 attacks was an intelligence failure of unprecedented magnitude," the senior Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee said. "Some people who couldn't seem to utter the words 'intelligence failure' are now convinced of it."
Congress Opens Hearings on Sept. 11 Intelligence
http://intelligence.senate.gov/hr107.htm
      http://intelligence.senate.gov/0209hrg/020918/witness.htm
      http://intelligence.senate.gov/0209hrg/020919/witness.htm
      http://intelligence.senate.gov/0209hrg/020920/witness.htm
      http://intelligence.senate.gov/0209hrg/020924/witness.htm
      http://intelligence.senate.gov/0209hrg/020926/witness.htm
      http://intelligence.senate.gov/0210hrg/021001/witness.htm
      http://intelligence.senate.gov/0210hrg/021003/witness.htm
      http://intelligence.senate.gov/0210hrg/021008/witness.htm
      http://intelligence.senate.gov/0210hrg/021017/witness.htm
      http://intelligence.senate.gov/findings.pdf
      http://intelligence.senate.gov/recommendations.pdf
http://www.house.gov/intelligence/committee_documents.htm
      http://www.house.gov/intelligence/PDF/hill.pdf
      http://www.house.gov/intelligence/PDF/hill092002.pdf
      http://www.house.gov/intelligence/PDF/hill092402.pdf
      http://www.house.gov/intelligence/PDF/hill100102.pdf
      http://www.house.gov/intelligence/PDF/hill100302.pdf
      http://www.house.gov/intelligence/PDF/hill100802.pdf
      http://www.house.gov/intelligence/PDF/hill101702.pdf
      http://www.house.gov/intelligence/jis_findings.htm
      http://www.house.gov/intelligence/jis_recomm.htm

In two weeks of hearings into the 9/11 attacks, House and Senate members have said that Congress did not provide the resources, laws and oversight that might have helped prevent the attacks.

Federal authorities are investigating the disappearance of genetically altered bacteria fatal to pigs that appear to have been stolen from a research laboratory at Michigan State University. Investigators said that while the bacteria apparently are harmless to humans, they could devastate the pork industry if replicated and released, and they are treating the case as a potential terrorist threat.

United States Senate Committee on Armed Services to receive testimony on U.S. policy on Iraq.
http://www.senate.gov/~armed_services/hearings.cfm?h_month=9#month

Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction - The assessment of the British Government
http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page6117.asp

A U.S. attack on Iraq could cost as much as $60 billion even if swift and successful, with any follow-up and broader economic strain perhaps pushing the final tab to $200 billion, a congressional report said.
http://www.house.gov/budget/
      http://www.house.gov/budget_democrats/ A War with Iraq Could Cost $100 Billion to $200 Billion

The White House is expected to notify Congress of its intention to spend money authorized in the 1998 Iraq Liberation Act for lethal training for over 1,000 Iraqi opposition fighters, many factions representing Hashemites, Sunni, Shi'ite Muslims and exiled military officers.
http://209.50.252.70/p_en/inc/index.shtml Iraqi National Congress

A slew of dour corporate forecasts and fears about a possible war with Iraq sent stocks tumbling, yanking the Nasdaq down to its lowest level since 1996 and extending the longest bear market stocks have seen in 60 years. Investors are thinking about war again and about the price of oil going up. Some analysts said there could actually be an economic payoff in the long run by getting rid of Iraq President Saddam Hussein.
Could U.S. economy be a casualty of a war with Iraq?
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020925/ap_wo_en_po/us_economy_iraq_1
http://www.imf.org/external/index.htm World Economic Outlook

The chief executive of American Airlines said that a war in Iraq would be a devastating blow to the already-distressed industry, warning that more bankruptcies were likely without additional financial assistance from the federal government.

U.S. Gave West Nile, Other Viruses, to Iraq
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/9/23/213349.shtml
The epidemic of West Nile virus as of September 24, 2002, which has killed 94 people this year and made nearly 2,000 sick, has stretched the resources of the U.S. public health system, officials said. The virus has also thrown up a few surprises -- spreading faster than predicted, causing a previously unseen polio-like disease in some, and getting into donated blood and organs, the officials told the U.S. Congress.
Responding to the Public Health Threat of West Nile Virus
http://www.senate.gov/~gov_affairs/hearings.htm
      http://www.senate.gov/~gov_affairs/092402witness.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/westnile/surv&control.htm
http://www.rense.com/general29/wnvv.htm

      http://www.senate.gov/~gov_affairs/081202homelandsecurity.htm

Interim Smallpox Response Plan and Guidelines
http://www.bt.cdc.gov/documentsapp/SmallPox/RPG/index.asp
http://www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/smallpox/index.asp

In 1999, three years before the Sept. 11 attack, a Chinese military manual titled "Unrestricted Warfare" touted such an attack – suggesting it would be difficult for the U.S. military to cope with. Surprisingly, Osama bin Laden is mentioned frequently in this book. The media and Congress are keeping a lid on this book because of the implications of U.S.-China economic and trade relations.
http://www.rense.com/general29/sdspl.htm
http://www.terrorism.com/documents/unrestricted.pdf
http://www.uscc.gov/ U.S.-China Commission
http://www.afpc.org/crm/crmmain.htm China Reform Monitor

The Department of Defense (DoD) announced a new program to support homeland security called the Biological Defense Homeland Security Support Program. The program consists of two separate efforts: the Biological Defense Initiative (BDI) which will be executed by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA); and the National Capital Region (NCR) demonstration to be executed by the Program Executive Office for Chemical/Biological Defense (PEOCBD). The BDI objectives are to develop and deploy two prototype urban monitoring systems by June 2004 and demonstrate a potential model for a national capability. The BDI program will demonstrate the feasibility of integrating disparate information sources to enhance the capability to detect and characterize a biological-related incident. As part of the development effort, DTRA will establish a testbed using equipment deployed in Albuquerque, N.M. The NCR demonstration objectives are to expand the currently operational aerosol monitoring system in the NCR and integrate the information into an expanded over-arching bio-surveillance network called Electronic Surveillance System for the Early Notification of Community-based Epidemics (ESSENCE) II. This expanded capability integrates both military and civilian health care and other non-traditional medical indicators to allow for early warning of acts of bio-terrorism. Data collected from ESSENCE II will be used to determine the best methods and procedures for initiating similar urban bio-surveillance systems. This expanded capability will be operational by the end of fiscal 2003.

Sheikh Yamani, the former head of OPEC who terrorised the West with oil embargoes in the 1970s, warned that the price of crude could triple to $100 a barrel if there is a war against Iraq. "And if that's the case, you can expect a triple-digit oil price. It could rise to $100 if the flow of oil from Kuwait and Saudia Arabia is turned off," he said. International benchmark Brent crude oil peaked at $29.25 on Sept. 24, 2002, a higher level since just after last year's September 11 attacks on the United States. Analysts are increasingly concerned that it will continue to rise. It reached $40 a barrel during the Gulf war.

U.S. intelligence has detected what appears to be an al Qaeda training camp in a remote region of eastern Iran along the border with Afghanistan. Asked about the report, a U.S. official said "there are some pockets of al Qaeda in Iran near the border" but would not comment further. Iran has denied that al Qaeda members have sought refuge within its borders. Washington has named Iran part of an "axis of evil" accusing it of seeking to acquire weapons of mass destruction and sponsoring terrorism, a charge Iran denies.

Canada is now expressing full support for the kind of tough U.N. resolution the United States is seeking on Iraq.
http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/foreign_policy/menu-en.asp Canadian Foreign Policy

President George W. Bush security adviser accused Iraqi President Saddam Hussein regime of sheltering members of the al-Qaida terrorist network in Baghdad and helping Osama bin Laden operatives in developing chemical weapons. A Pentagon official, speaking on condition of anonymity, called the new assertions an ''exaggeration.'' Other intelligence experts said that some of the charges appeared to be based on old information and that there is still no ''smoking gun'' connecting Iraq with the Sept. 11 attacks.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/international/july-dec02/rice_9-25.html

“A Decade of Deception and Defiance”—made no mention of any Iraqi ties to Osama bin Laden.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/09/20020912.html
http://www.msnbc.com/news/813579.asp?pne=msntv&cp1=1 Ashcroft’s Baghdad Connection

It was originally believed that the Turkish paramilitary police had seized over 15 kg of weapons-grade uranium. The disparity occurred because authorities initially included the weight of the lead container in which the material was placed, police said. The Atomic Energy Institute said the material was harmless, containing zinc, iron, zirconium and manganese. Police in Istanbul seized more than one kg of weapons-grade uranium in November 2001 that had been smuggled into Turkey from an east European state.

Not terrorism related but it will hurt the US and Asian economies. Economists gave warning that the dispute could turn into a national emergency. American retailers said that prices could go up before Christmas because of the port closures. Smaller haulage companies said that they could be pushed into bankruptcy. The executive director of the Hong Kong Shippers’ Council, said. “This could result in a disaster. If there’s no sign of a compromise, it will affect the whole global economy.” The Hawaiian economy is critically vulnerable.
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&scoring=d&q=Pacific+longshore+union
http://www.pmanet.com/ Pacific Maritime Association
http://www.ilwu.org/ International Longshore and Warehouse Union

Philippine police are investigating the possible involvement of Muslim extremists linked to al Qaeda in a bomb blast that killed three people, including a U.S. soldier on October 2, 2002. The bomb exploded outside an open-air restaurant and karaoke bar near a military camp occupied by U.S. and Philippine troops in Zamboanga. Investigators said a Filipino was on a motorcycle with a box containing the bomb when it went off. He stopped and was tinkering with the box when it suddenly exploded.

The issue of bus security received new attention after more incidents aboard buses in Ohio and California. Passengers on a Greyhound bus in Ohio subdued a man who threw himself on the driver and steering wheel in an apparent attempt to crash the bus. Two passengers died when a Greyhound bus crashed near Fresno, Calif., after a man stabbed the driver with a pair of scissors. The attacks occurred almost exactly a year after a passenger on a Greyhound bus in Tennessee slashed the driver's throat, causing a crash that killed seven. The Transportation Security Administration has not distributed money to improve intercity bus security.

An outbreak of exotic Newcastle disease would severely impact the U.S. poultry industry. Eradication efforts cost taxpayers, severely disrupt the operations of many producers, and increase the prices of poultry and poultry products to consumers. The only way to eradicate exotic Newcastle from commercial poultry is by rapidly destroying all infected flocks and imposing strict quarantine and indepth surveillance programs.
http://www.oie.int/eng/info/hebdo/AIS_51.HTM#Sec1 NEWCASTLE DISEASE IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/ahfss/ah/Newcastle_info.htm
http://www.agri.state.nv.us/END.htm
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/lpa/issues/enc/exoticnc.html

Commerzbank, Germany's third largest bank, lost a quarter of its value raising fear of sparking a global depression. US stock markets have fallen for six consecutive weeks, to their lowest levels in five years. European markets have collapsed even further, wiping out nearly half of the value of European corpora tions in this year alone. Japan is struggling to put together a plan to save its banking system, riddled with bad debt after a decade of recession and falling prices. Now the German economy threatens to follow. There are strong parallels to the Thirties after an unsustainable "new era" boom, then the stock market decline was not just steep, it was long, taking three years to reach the bottom.

Attacks on vessels in various parts of the world are a real and growing problem. Recent years have seen a steady rise in the number and severity of incidents of piracy and armed robbery against ships, posing an increasing danger to the world's shipping and to international trade.
http://www.marisec.org/piracy/index.htm Maritime International Secretariat Services Limited
http://www.iccwbo.org/ccs/menu_imb_piracy.asp
http://www.iccwbo.org/ccs/imb_piracy/weekly_piracy_report.asp
http://www.maritimesecurity.org/Frame.html
http://www.noonsite.com/News?news_topic=piracy
http://www.numast.org/
http://www.cargolaw.com/

Osama bin Laden is alive and regularly meeting Mullah Omar, the fugitive leader of the Taliban, according to a telephone call intercepted by American spy satellites. In the conversation, recorded less than a month ago, Omar and a senior aide were discussing the American-led hunt to track them down. The two men, using a mobile Thuraya satellite phone, spoke about tactics for several minutes. Omar then turned to a third person who was within a few yards of him, voice analysis has revealed. After exchanging a few words, Omar said that 'the sheikh sends his salaams [greetings]'. Senior Taliban figures habitually refer to bin Laden as 'the sheikh'.
http://www.observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,805618,00.html

Osama bin Laden threatens to strike US economic interests on a tape released October 6, 2002. "The youth of Islam are preparing something to strike fear in your hearts and will target the vital sectors of your economy until you renounce your injustice and hostility."

A French oil supertanker the Limburg was attacked by terrorists.
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&scoring=d&q=oil-tanker+explosion

The Clinton administration "de-emphasized" fighting Arab international terrorism to focus on domestic terrorism – namely, white "right-wing" militia groups – which led to the FBI ignoring Arab nationals flocking to U.S. flight